Sam Cassell: NBA Is Protecting LeBron James

"Wow. It’s just different right now," said Cassell yesterday following practice "They gave me a flagrant-1 foul, and no way in the world was it a flagrant-1 foul. I’m going to call [NBA vice president] Stu [ Jackson] and see what he thinks about that. That’s not a flagrant-1 foul at all. Back in the day, a flagrant-1 was bloodshed. Now, you can just grab somebody . . . It’s the new NBA."

Cassell added, "I know Michael Jordan is sitting at home right now pouting because they didn’t protect him. There wasn’t no bigger star than him, and he took some banging. But he got through it. That’s why he got considered the best player to pick up a basketball." [Boston Globe]